1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to apparatus for dispensing particulate ice and/or ice cooled beverage; the apparatus has an improved ice storage bin which can include a heat exchanger cold plate for beverage cooling, a new ice discharge impeller, melt water drain, and discharge port for the ice.
2. The Prior Art
Ice cooled beverage dispensers have been around for quite a while. The typical construction has an insulated bin, a door in the bin for loading and unloading of ice cubes, a cold plate in the bottom of the bin, and beverage dispensing valves above the bin. Particulate ice is dumped into the bin and on to the cold plate, either manually or by automatic feed from an automatic ice maker. Beverage is then run through the cold plate, the ice melts and is consumed to cool the beverage, and the beverage is dispensed to a cup. The user of the dispenser leaves the bin door open, or else opens the door and gets ice either with a scoop or his/her hand, and puts the ice in the drink.
This has become an objectionable practice to health and sanitation departments, to the parent soft drink companies, to fast food franchises and retailers, and to customers. The practice of leaving the bin door open effects frequent contamination of the ice due to insects and spilled beverage. Manual handling of the ice is now unacceptable to health departments, and it takes too much time and is too erratic in quantity for the fast food retailers.
Combined electro-mechanical refrigeration for beverage cooling together with a separate ice maker and ice dispenser has been one solution. However, this requires discrete machines for dispensing, for cooling, for ice making and for ice dispensing. The beverage and ice dispensers are logistically spaced from one another. The cost is exorbitant. There are too many components prone to failure.
Reynolds Products, Inc. of Schaumberg, Ill., has combined an ice maker and dispenser with a beverage dispenser. D. S. Reynolds et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,441,176 to Reynolds is representative of this work.
Remcor Products of Chicago, Ill., has also combined an ice maker with a beverage dispenser and ice dispenser. The structure of the ice dispenser per se is subject of J. M. Whalen U.S. Pat. No. 3,517,860. This patent shows only the ice dispenser.
These units have provided for sanitary dispensing of ice and/or iced beverages. The machine user never touches the ice. These machines can be placed in self-service cafeterias where the customer self-helps to both ice and beverage without contact and without contamination of either the ice or the beverage.
For good reason, the public has taken a liking to this type of machine, and replacement of the prior separate ice bin and dispensing system appears to be not only desirable, but inevitable.
The Reynolds dispenser utilizes a Reynolds ice maker and is intended only for Reynolds ice. The Remcor dispenser is advertised to have "improved reliability" for "all types of ice" with the exception of flake ice.
It has been a continual battle to keep particulate ice dispensers operative, to avoid jamming, and to keep the cost of the machine economically feasible. Bin constructions have been complicated and have had excessive heat, motor noise, and vibration transfer through bin mounts and dispenser motor mounts and the bin door, and between the bin and the exterior shell of the dispenser. There have been problems with freeze-up and/or plug-up of melt water drains. There have been problems of breakage and/or erosion of the ice bin interior liners due to the hardness of ice being moved about in the bin. Jamming of ice in the discharge chute and in the outlet door has been a problem. Dispensing outlet doors have required solenoid or motor actuation and the necessary wiring and switches, and have been very noisy. These doors typically make a loud clanking noise upon both opening and closing. Over-run of ice dispensing has been a problem; specifically, after the dispenser has been shut off, ice will continue to fall out off of the dispenser outlet. Ice agglomeration within the bin and within the dispensing outlet has been a problem, particularly when different types of ice are used. Breaking and disposing of these agglomerations, which usually form overnight during the non-use period, is difficult. Quite often the machine user has to open the cover and manually break up the agglomeration with an ice pick.
In a combination of ice and beverage dispenser where the ice is used to cool the beverage, wet ice has been a problem due to continued melt-down of ice in the bin for beverage cooling, and then dispensing of whatever wet ice remains into a beverage cup. Disposal of melt water in order to keep the ice as dry as possible is a problem. Sanitation is also difficult with cleanability, disposal of melt water, impurities from melt water, galvanic corrosion and lubricating greases being problems.